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NCAAF Picks

Boise State Defense Makes Broncos the Week 2 College Football Pick vs. BYU

For our week 2 college football picks we preview Boise State and BYU late Saturday night game, our betting expert Troy West breaksdown the odds in search of the best value to cash a winning pick.

Boise State Broncos vs. Brigham Young Cougars
Anything interesting happen last week? Boise State managed to survive the scare from Washington, while BYU came up with a historic final play to shock Nebraska. The two teams are fighting for their playoff lives – at least the perception of their playoff lives – as the perception of them in just the sixth meeting with Boise State holding a 4-1 record. While both programs were Mountain West stars, they never played in the conference at the same time.

It wasn’t quite the moment Boise State needed. The Broncos thoroughly dominated Washington, but they couldn’t put them away needing to hang on late in the 16-13 win. Boise State is going to be right there in the mix for the Group of Five spot in one of the New Year’s Six bowls all season long, but it would be nice to at least be in the discussion for the playoff. That can only happen with a 13-0 season and a few dominant wins in non-conference play. It’s a must to not only beat the Cougars, but do it impressively.

BYU’s schedule is so nasty that 12-0 should get it done – as if that’s an easy task. It’s going to be far harder now without star quarterback Taysom Hill, who was knocked out for the season by Nebraska, but this is a very good, very explosive team that was able to come out of Lincoln with the win. However, this could all turn ugly fast with a loss to Boise State. Up next is a road trip to UCLA followed up by a date at Michigan.

BYU made Tommy Armstrong look like Tommy Brady. The Nebraska quarterback is a talent, but he’s not supposed to throw for 319 yards and riddle the BYU secondary with big plays. On the other side, as good as the Cougar offense turned out to be, it couldn’t move the chains on third downs. The Bronco defense should be able to swarm into the backfield and keep BYU from establishing anything on a consistent basis, and it should be able to again.

Can the Boise State Offense Get Things Going?

Washington was supposed to be completely and totally rebuilding and revamping defensively, and it still is. Even so, the Broncos couldn’t seem to move the ball as well as they should’ve down the field. The running game was okay, and there was a little bit of balance, but the offense struggled to put the game away. If the BYU run defense can hold up as well as it did against the Nebraska ground attack, Boise State is going to have a hard time moving.

Can Tanner Mangum Do it for a Full Game?
Thrown into the spotlight when Hill went down against the Huskers, the 6-3, 210-pound freshman rolled into Cougar history completing 7-of-11 passes for 111 yards and a very, very big score. Forgotten in the excitement was how he balled his way to 26 rushing yards and kept the offense moving to save the game. While no one is expecting Mangum to be Hill right away, he’s a terrific talent who’s back after a few years on a church mission with the right skills to be the new star. He was an Elite 11 camper and a great get for the program – he’s ready.

College Football Pick

Boise State will come up with very strong, very effective effort on both sides of the ball. The offense might not be the explosive thrill ride everyone will be waiting for, but the defense will do its part by bothering Mangum all game long. It took a while for the Broncos to get into the Washington backfield, but it did when it absolutely had to. As for my free College Football Pick It’ll be steadier against the Cougar offensive front.